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Among legal philosophers, the time-honored dispute between natural-law schools and legal positivists arouses ever new interest. On the side of the positivists, the "pure theory of law" gains more and more ground. This theory is mainly represented by Professor Hans Kelsen, formerly of Vienna, now of Geneva, and by Professor Alfred von Verdross, of Vienna. In America, systematic consideration was first devoted to it by Dr. Johannes Mattern, who analyzed Verdross's thinking; later, Dr. Josef L. Kunz, one of the foremost followers of Kelsen, took up the discussion, emphasizing the importance of the theory for a scientific basis of international law; and quite recently an article by Dr. Henry Janzen dealt with legal monism as the basis of the "pure theory of law."

The nineteenth century was for Ethiopia a century of inner consolidation. During that time the Ethiopian rulers step by step restored the power accredited to their dynasty which they had lost in endless feuds during the eighteenth century. On the coast the Porte claimed suzerainty over the strip down to the Strait of Bab el Mandeb and even Zeila. Turkish occupation was actual only at Massawa; from there Turkey controlled the commerce with north Ethiopia; in most other places Turkish control was nominal. The chiefs of the Danakil coastal tribes were practically independent. When, however, about the year 1839, the French Compagnie Nanto-Bordelaise bought from the local Danakil chiefs the village of Edd, which today belongs to Italian Eritrea, with a district extending three leagues inland, the Porte protested, and the French Government repudiated the purchase. But the rights of the purchasers to the soil were not questioned, and a French company still claimed them in 1862.